My Children! My Africa! Themes

My Children! My Africa! is set in the final years of the apartheid regime, a white supremacist government that ruled South Africa from 1948 until the 1990s and imposed strict racial segregation on the population. The play follows the relationships among three people: the privileged white student Isabel Dyson, the brilliant Black student Thami Mbikwana, and the dedicated, idealistic Black schoolteacher Mr. M. When a militant protest movement sweeps over their town…

In My Children! My Africa!, Athol Fugard shows how the apartheid regime reserved wealth and power for white people by dividing South African society along a racial line and ruthlessly exploiting the Black majority. But the racial divide also serves another purpose: it geographically, socially, and politically separates groups of people from one another, in order to try and prevent white people from recognizing non-white people’s humanity and fighting for social equality. Nevertheless, the…

As the play’s title suggests, the three protagonists of My Children! My Africa!—Thami, Isabel, and Mr. M—are driven by a profound love for Africa and its people. In one way or another, all three dedicate their lives to building a better future for both their home country of South Africa and the continent as a whole. This dedication largely stems from their knowledge of how colonialism has devastated and impoverished…